Minnesota Sports Forum

Honestly I'm shocked. Rosas got this done and it was for a guy in Wiggins most felt like it was time to move on from and a 1st round pick which...lets be honest we are the Wolves it's likely to be pretty valuable. Still Russell makes a TON of sense here. The Wolves have like 47 guys that MIGHt be worthwhile on the wing and some of them even defend. Towns and Russell are friends or whatever. That's gonna help at least for a while...keeping Towns from jumping ship. Wiggins value went up this season but Russell is having possibly his best year and he is playing with a roster of guys that's probably worse than the Wolves. His efficiency has gone UP. Defense? Sure but let's be honest Wiggins wasn't super great on that end either and I can live with a bad defending PG more than just a decent wing defender. Russell has the size to theoretically switch. My worry is whether or not he stays healthy.

Still can't believe this happened. I get some people aren't in on Russell. Hopefully there is something good that happens that makes everyone here happy...legit success for this franchise even if it isn't a championship a nice legitimately competitive team we can actually be proud of. Let's see. I hope Cool does come back and I honestly hope he enjoys following the bucks too. He has been a wolves fan he deserves to enjoy following a team. Lol

Hard to get excited about this trade. However the more I dissect it, the less bad it gets. I like the inclusion of Omari Spellman, he's a stretch four shooting almost 40% from 3. Jacob Evans I don't know much about. They're both late 1st round picks in 2018 and only 22 years old. Giving up our 2021 1st hurts, but gives us an incentive not to tank and try make the playoffs. Maybe we could trade the 2020 pick we acquired from ATL for a 2021.

It's sad Wiggins never reached his potential in Minny, but a change of scenery might be the best for everyone. It is starting to feel like Towns is calling the shots though and will pout and pack a sad until he gets what he wants. That doesn't bode well for a losing franchise.

I haven't punched the numbers but it looks like we might have a bit of cap space to play with this offseason. Both Turner and Crabbe are 18 mil expirings. Wiggins and DLO offset each other. And from what posters have said RoCo and resigning Malik Beasley will offset each other.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:Russell has his flaws but he does what you need in the NBA. We finally got a primary ball handling scorer who can do it at a high level. To me that is step one towards building a real team. No more Rubio's who can't shoot. No more Teague's who don't play aggressive enough. We got our ball handling scorer who can run the offense. Now ideally get a second one on the wing and put some defense around them and this will start to look like a real team. You can build good teams around guys with Russell's skills. You can't around guys like Wiggins.

Any idea why he's on his 4th team in 5 years? Sounds like a guy lots of teams don't think they can build around. But the Wolves couldn't learn from that, they are going to try anyway. And the sad part is there will be NO 5th team who is going to take him off our hands. We are stuck and finished without hope.

He was 19 in LA and destroyed the team chemistry on a bad judgement call. That was immaturity which can happen when you are 19 in LA and the number 2 pick in the draft. He was good in Brooklyn who made a smart move getting him in the first place and then they decided to get Kyrie and KD and didn't have room left for D Lo. That's not on him. I don't see anyone here saying he's better than either of those guys so that's just Brooklyn trading up assets. GS specifically got him to trade him away later so they didn't lose KD for nothing and now they essentially got Wiggins for a guy who was leaving in Durant. I would say that's better than literally nothing. You are using that 4 teams in 5 years like he's a cancer and the fact is he's been moved twice to fit in pieces that were either just better than him in Brooklyn's case or a better fit in GS's case and the only real problem came when he was 19 and made a bad teammate move. That to me is some thin foundation for your argument against him.

monsterpile wrote:Honestly I'm shocked. Rosas got this done and it was for a guy in Wiggins most felt like it was time to move on from and a 1st round pick which...lets be honest we are the Wolves it's likely to be pretty valuable. Still Russell makes a TON of sense here. The Wolves have like 47 guys that MIGHt be worthwhile on the wing and some of them even defend. Towns and Russell are friends or whatever. That's gonna help at least for a while...keeping Towns from jumping ship. Wiggins value went up this season but Russell is having possibly his best year and he is playing with a roster of guys that's probably worse than the Wolves. His efficiency has gone UP. Defense? Sure but let's be honest Wiggins wasn't super great on that end either and I can live with a bad defending PG more than just a decent wing defender. Russell has the size to theoretically switch. My worry is whether or not he stays healthy.

Still can't believe this happened. I get some people aren't in on Russell. Hopefully there is something good that happens that makes everyone here happy...legit success for this franchise even if it isn't a championship a nice legitimately competitive team we can actually be proud of. Let's see. I hope Cool does come back and I honestly hope he enjoys following the bucks too. He has been a wolves fan he deserves to enjoy following a team. Lol

Monster, you really think he makes a ton of sense? I would bet a ton that it doesn't. There are so many reasons it won't.

I'm more on the fence. I'm more interested with the other players then DLO and KAT and wether they (Rosas and Company) can find pieces and develop them. This team winning and losing isn't decided on just from these two. Potentially even finding a player better than both to turn this franchise into a contender.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:Russell has his flaws but he does what you need in the NBA. We finally got a primary ball handling scorer who can do it at a high level. To me that is step one towards building a real team. No more Rubio's who can't shoot. No more Teague's who don't play aggressive enough. We got our ball handling scorer who can run the offense. Now ideally get a second one on the wing and put some defense around them and this will start to look like a real team. You can build good teams around guys with Russell's skills. You can't around guys like Wiggins.

Any idea why he's on his 4th team in 5 years? Sounds like a guy lots of teams don't think they can build around. But the Wolves couldn't learn from that, they are going to try anyway. And the sad part is there will be NO 5th team who is going to take him off our hands. We are stuck and finished without hope.

The Warriors only wanted him to retain some value when they lost Durant and the Nets unloaded him to make way for Kyrie. It's not like they just didn't want him.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:Honestly I'm shocked. Rosas got this done and it was for a guy in Wiggins most felt like it was time to move on from and a 1st round pick which...lets be honest we are the Wolves it's likely to be pretty valuable. Still Russell makes a TON of sense here. The Wolves have like 47 guys that MIGHt be worthwhile on the wing and some of them even defend. Towns and Russell are friends or whatever. That's gonna help at least for a while...keeping Towns from jumping ship. Wiggins value went up this season but Russell is having possibly his best year and he is playing with a roster of guys that's probably worse than the Wolves. His efficiency has gone UP. Defense? Sure but let's be honest Wiggins wasn't super great on that end either and I can live with a bad defending PG more than just a decent wing defender. Russell has the size to theoretically switch. My worry is whether or not he stays healthy.

Still can't believe this happened. I get some people aren't in on Russell. Hopefully there is something good that happens that makes everyone here happy...legit success for this franchise even if it isn't a championship a nice legitimately competitive team we can actually be proud of. Let's see. I hope Cool does come back and I honestly hope he enjoys following the bucks too. He has been a wolves fan he deserves to enjoy following a team. Lol

Monster, you really think he makes a ton of sense? I would bet a ton that it doesn't. There are so many reasons it won't.

Yes he makes sense. The Wolves needed a PG and they have a billion moderately interesting wings. Russell's passing tends to be underrated. If you don't like him that's fine air respect you position but the fit makes sense. Honestly I don't know if the guy is a bad dude or whatever. I'm guessing he isn't a stand up awesome down to earth awesome pro like say Covington but is a big problem? Idk. That why I wonder if he is sorta like Kyrie a pretty talented player that you wonder what he actually brings you in terms of being a good team. Pretty good player...sort of a problem. Kyrie is a special scorer (more accomplished than Russell and A better player when healthy) but Russell is a better passer and actual PG though imo. Russell probably has a better complimentary game. I'm not all in on Russell but I do think this gamble makes a lot of sense to me. If it doesn't to you that's Cool. :)

Wow, I try to get some work done and the rest of the roster turns over!

This meets my "I only want DLO if Wiggins is gone" criteria, so there's that. I don't have a ton of faith that KAT and DLO can lead us very far. But damn, SOMETHING had to be done. We did not have a "let's just be patient with these guys" kind of roster, that's for sure. Rome was burning. Rosas had to act.

Where is Cam?!?!

Wolves saved some money here and there but this deal they added Russell who is a bit more expensive than Wiggins and then Spellman and Evans make a combined 4 million next year which is still pretty cheap. As someone pointed out Spellman has actually been somewhat productive this year and shooting well from deep. I thought he looked fat and bad in SL so... lol Evans is at least hitting the 3 at a decent rate an can hit a FT. Other 2 point shots...not so much. Looking at the Warriors stats...Jordon Pool other than hitting FTs...it's BRutal shooting percentages. This draft class has some really bad shooting in it so far.